Danielle Smith sat in a front-row pew at Crosby’s First Baptist Church, where she and her husband, Jack, bring the children to worship and where she volunteers. Her daughters played. Her toddler son lay in the loving arms of one of the Crosby couple’s friends, Tara Beasley.
Smith, a Kingwood native, ought to be the mother of four.
The mother of three talked about an eternal darkness that fell on a burst of tragically fleeting dawn, her first-born son, Jackson.
He appeared normal and healthy before sudden infant death syndrome struck, she said.
“He had some acid reflux,” Smith recalled. “I laid him down for his afternoon nap when he was 5 months and 7 days [old] on February 17th 2004. “I went to go get him. He was floppy. His face was blue. I sat him down and started to do CPR. We called 911. He threw up in my mouth. He had a heartbeat in the ambulance.
“I don’t know what I thought, but I didn’t think SIDS. He was old; I mean 5 months. He could roll over. He was talking. He was sitting up on his own … I think of a newborn passing away from SIDS or a very young baby that gets their face covered and can’t move their head.”
Jackson? How could that happen?
“He lay on his back,” Smith recalled. “He took a pacifier. He was born at 9 pounds 1 ounce. He just didn’t fit the criteria for SIDS at all.”
Imagine how the couple felt when their son, Christian, was found limp in his bed on April 19.
“He was fine the night before,” Smith said. “We went to a softball game. Tons of people saw him — totally normal Christian. He laid down for that night. I noticed that he hadn’t gotten up. That was weird because he was 7 months old at the time, and he usually got up. I had the monitor on. I was standing outside the door, and I couldn’t hear him.
“When I walked in, he was crying. He was crying so low that, even at the door, I couldn’t hear him. He was just laying there. He looked up at me. He couldn’t move anything … I picked him up, and he was just a rag doll, just completely slack. Just nothing. Floppy. Then we went to Texas Children’s Hospital. Tons of tests. They did a spinal tap. They did an MRI.”
Christian was paralyzed. The battle with the neurological disorder transverse myelitis ensued.
Spinal cord inflammation has attacked a substance known as myelin, which insulates Christian’s nerve cell fibers. The disease can be fatal.
As if the emotional trauma of perhaps losing a second child was not enough, Jack and Danielle’s first medical bill, which trailed a month of hospitalization, was $560,000. In the first three days, the family learned that Jack’s health insurance was completely drained. One therapeutic stretch of the treatment forced the family to choose for six months between a mortgage payment on their Crosby home or giving their son hope.
They obviously chose the latter, which left the Smiths trying to catch up missed house payments in order to emerge from foreclosure.
Texas Children’s Hospital officials directed the Smiths to a grant program, which would have covered some treatment costs through Oct. 31. But the family had learned about the program after paying out of pocket for most of Christian’s therapy.
Jack’s income exceeds the Medicaid threshold. Most of the other grants are targeted at low-income families, and the Smiths do not qualify.
Strapped, traumatized, fearful and prayerful, the Smiths have seen rays of hope for Christian as they raise also their two daughters, ages 5 and 10.
One light shines from the supportive congregation of Crosby’s First Baptist Church. The other radiates jointly from Legacy Photography by Tara and the Abiding Place Retreat, which has planned a benefit in which a reader of this article may become another source of hope by helping to raise at least, if not more than, an estimated $5,000 to cover the cost of Christian’s impending occupational and physical therapy, and related medical costs, during a crucial juncture.
Proceeds from the Christian’s Influence Alliance Benefit Golf Outing will go directly toward defraying the cost treatment, without even filtering through family coffers. The CIA golf event will be held Monday, Oct. 31, at Walden on Lake Houston Golf Club in Humble. Registration is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and there will be a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
The donation is $100 per player and $400 per team. The entry cost covers four green fees, one redeemable at each of the following courses: Bear Creek, Longwood, Southwyck and Tour 18. Additionally, players will receive a member-for-a-day coupon for use at Walden.
The event will feature raffles, contests and a hole in one prize. A grab-and-go breakfast and a barbecue lunch will be provided to participants.
One may join those who have already signed up at Prayforchristiansmith.blogspot.com. An online Pay Pal account will allow one to make a donation. Donations also may be sent to Community Bank of Texas, Attention: Josh Seale / for Jack Smith, 6200 FM 2100, Crosby, Texas 77532. The Smiths request prayers as well.
Anyone who wants more information may contact Beasley, who operates Legacy Photography by Tara, at either 832-233-3222 or legacyphotographybytara@gmail.com.
“If it only pays for treatment, then it is well worth every moment of planning and executing and sponsors and volunteers and all of that because that is the goal,” Beasley said, adding that funds that exceed the therapy costs would become a credit for Christian’s additional treatment.
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